Chicken breasts in a tomato and chickpea sauce on vegetable couscous

Here’s what we had for dinner last night – I didn’t want anything to rich and creamy (trying to be virtuous, hahahaha!), I didn’t want anything too fussy and I had 2 chicken breasts in the fridge that needed eating – so here’s the end result. Truly delicious!!

2 deboned skinless chicken breasts 1 tin chopped tomatoes 1 tin chickpeas, drained (I used the Sainsbury’s organic chickpeas – small and full of nutty flavour) 2 carrots, cut into julienne strips about 1 inch long a small handful of fine green beans, chopped into 1 inch long pieces 1 small onion, finely chopped 1 clove of garlic, minced 2 tsp brown sugar 1 Tbs soy sauce 1 cup uncooked couscous (I used a pre-seasoned packet of couscous for 2 people – I estimate it was about half a cup of uncooked couscous but we could have done with more.) Seasoning to taste e.g. salt, pepper, cumin, coriander, mint (unless you are lazy like me and use the pre-seasoned stuff)

Method:

Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper to taste (I also added tarragon) and brown them in a hot pan with a little olive oil. Place in oven-proof dish sprayed with olive oil and bake covered at 180 degrees Celsius for about 25 minutes or until the juices run clear.

While the chicken is cooking, chop the vegetables and garlic and sautè in the same pan until the onion is soft but the other vegetables are still crisp. Add a little more olive oil to the pan if needed.

In a flat saucepan, gently heat the chopped tomatoes together with the brown sugar, chickpeas and soy sauce until all ingredients are heated through.

Prepare the couscous – either follow the package instructions or bring to the boil 1 cup of water in a medium sized pot. When the water is boiling, remove from the heat, stir in the couscous and seasoning, and cover. Allow to rest for about 10 minutes before stirring the cooked vegetables into the couscous with a fork.

Serve each chicken breast on a bed of couscous topped with the tomato chickpea sauce.

Note:

To make it gluten-free, try serving the chicken on a bed of quinoa instead of couscous.

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Jeanne Horak-Druiff is a freelance food and travel writer as well as a recipe developer and photographer. She is a South African by birth and a Londoner by choice who has been writing about food and travel on Cooksister since 2004. She is a popular speaker on food photography and writing has also contributed articles, recipes and photos to a number of online and print publications. Please get in touch to commission work from her. Read More…